Memoirs of Henry Hunt, Esq., vol 2 | Page 6

demanding a certain sum before we were handed into the custody
of his companion. Thus is this splendid testimony of national gratitude
to the Great Duke of Marlborough made a show of for the emolument
of the servants of the establishment; each of them demanding his fee as
regularly as a showman of wild beasts at a fair demands a shilling at the
entrance. This is considered by foreigners as a disgrace to the British
character, and it is justly considered so.
We must now return to politics.--Lord Nelson bombarded the French
flotilla at Boulogne, disabled ten vessels, and sunk five; but upon his
making another attempt on it, he was repulsed with great loss. I cannot
describe this eventful period better than it is described in the
"_Chronology of Public Events, within the last fifty years;_" a most
useful and entertaining work published by Sir Richard Phillips, Bride

Court, Bridge Street. The passage is as follows, under the head of
"Great Britain." "This year, 1801, commenced by exhibiting the effects
of eight years war; the national debt had been doubled, and internal
distress had become general; the poor were in a state bordering on
starvation, and commerce had the prospect of having every foreign port
shut against it. The people busied themselves to meet the threatened
French invasion; and after a long watch for encroachment, the English
themselves became assailants, by an attack upon Boulogne, which did
little injury, and a second attack took place, under Lord Nelson, which
failed with loss." This certainly is a correct description of the state of
the country, in the ninth year of the war against French liberty, waged
to prevent a Reform of the Parliament at home.
I shall now state how I was employed upon this occasion. Pitt's
alarmists still disseminated throughout the country, a general terror of
invasion. The various Lords Lieutenants of counties were kept actively
at work, to support the delusion; for nothing but the immediate dread of
invasion could have induced the people to pay the immense drains that
were made upon their pockets by taxation; nothing less than the dread
of having their property annihilated, their wives and daughters violated,
and their children bayoneted before their faces, could have made them
submit to the burthens which they bore.
Our Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire, Lord Pembroke, had caused circular
letters to be written to the clergymen, churchwardens and overseers of
every parish, to return an account of all the moveable property, live and
dead stock, that there was in their several parishes; and also to require
every farmer to give in a list of his stock of grain, horses, waggons and
cattle; and at the end of it to state what he would voluntarily place at
the disposal of the government, in case of an actual invasion; he was
also to declare whether he was employed in any volunteer corps, and if
not, whether he would place himself under the Lord Lieutenant and act
as pioneer, driver, &c. In the parish of Enford, a public meeting was
called, which was held at the Inn. Being much the largest farmer in the
parish, I was called to the chair. Having opened the business of the day
by reading the circular of the Lord Lieutenant, and explained as well as
I could the object of the meeting, I urged those who were present,
which was every farmer of the parish, by all the power of eloquence
that I possessed, to come forward manfully and devotedly, to resist the

common enemy with their property and their lives, in case they should
dare to set a foot upon English ground. As it was then my practice, and
which it has ever continued to be to this day, I told them that I should
feel myself a disgrace to human nature, if I could be capable of urging
or exciting my fellow countrymen to any act, in the danger of which I
would not stand forward personally to participate. I would, therefore, in
the first instance, write down fairly and honestly a true account of all
the stock, live and dead, that I possessed, and conceal nothing whatever.
It was as follows: Wheat, sixteen hundred sacks--barley, fifteen
hundred quarters--oats, four hundred quarters--hay, two hundred and
fifty ton--cart horses, thirty, value from thirty to seventy guineas
each--draught oxen, ten--cows, twenty--sheep, four thousand two
hundred--pigs, fifty--two broad-wheel and eight narrow-wheel waggons,
eight carts, &c. &c. &c. all in excellent condition, and fit for active
service. Each farmer in succession followed my example, in giving a
full and faithful account of the whole of his stock; I having urged the
necessity, nay, the policy, of this; because, in case the enemy were to
land, and the cattle and stock were to be driven off, no one could